The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, yesterday expressed her wish that the recent agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar would have the support of “all the democratic forces in this country” because the future of the Rock “is a question of state, not of political party”.
During an interview given by Canal Sur Radio, the minister assured that it will be up to Spain, as “an EU Member State that belongs to the Schengen area”, to take the “final decision” on the elimination of the borders between Gibraltar and the 26 European countries in the Schengen area, for which it will be assisted by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX).
However, the minister did not want to give more details about the principle of the agreement because her intention is to offer it to the Congress of Deputies “with light and stenography, as is done in a democracy”. In any case, she said, all the groups present in the Foreign Affairs Committees of the two chambers have already received an “initial idea” of the agreement and the Ministry has already begun the procedures for their appearance, for which there is no date yet. “I hope to be able to count on all the democratic forces in this country”, because “what we are dealing with is a question of state, not a question of political party”, she added.
The minister also said that Spain had not given up “on issues of sovereignty”, but neither had it given up “on moving forward together now that there is greater convergence of our interests”. According to González Laya, the Brexit has brought Gibraltar’s interests closer to those of our country“. “It has brought us closer through Europeanism”, which has allowed us to find “a common point around which to begin to build a new relationship”, added the minister, who recalled that the vast majority of Gibraltarians voted in favour of remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum.
On 2 January, the Popular Parliamentary Group asked the Standing Committee of the Congress of Deputies to call an extraordinary session of the plenary of the Congress of Deputies so that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, could explain the principle of the agreement reached by the Executive with the United Kingdom on Gibraltar. Last Sunday, the President of the PP, Pablo Casado, accused Pedro Sánchez of not having taken advantage of the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union to negotiate the co-sovereignty of Gibraltar.
Despite the fact that the Foreign Affairs Ministry has contacted the spokespersons of the parliamentary groups, they have not been informed of the details of the principle of the agreement, especially on the way in which passport control will be exercised at the airport and port of Gibraltar in order to gain access to the colony, once Spain has accepted that it is part of the Schengen area.
Contradicting González Laya, the Rock’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, stated this past weekend on his Twitter account that, “according to the New Year’s Eve Agreement, only Gibraltar decides who enters Gibraltar and no Spanish agent will carry out checks of any kind at the airport or in the port of Gibraltar, either now or over the next four years”. Reliable sources indicated to The Diplomat that the Spanish agents will not be physically present in the terminal of the Gibraltar airport, but in an adjacent building, from which they will be connected to the FRONTEX agents, who will carry out the controls and pass on the information about the passengers.
